Whitehill Community Association Trustees Report – Year ending 31 March 2023 NIC 101417
Group Purpose
We provide a service for all residents within the Whitehill area, Bangor North Down, for example, advice services, projects promoting health and well-being and educational classes for residents to gain qualifications. We also carry out community initiatives for the benefit of the area and also access any relevant funding to endorse the work of the Association.
Group Public benefits
The public will benefit from educational and recreational programmes and projects which we will provide within our local community. These programmes will provide health and well-being, mental health, educational which will help gain qualifications. Services from Statutory agencies such as advice clinics on benefits, crime prevention, housing advice, drug and alcohol services and we will also provide a signposting service for any public services available which our local residents may require. Fees are not charged for this service and none of our committee members will obtain any private benefit. There is no harm flowing from our purposes. The beneficiaries are the residents within the Whitehill and Bangor North Down area.
Trustee board
Cindy Moore Andrew Corr Francis Murray Kelly Summersgill
Financial Year 1[st] April 2022– 31[st] March 2023
Please see the financial report and independent examinations of accounts for full details. Our Association would have roughly £1,000 of assets to include laptops, games consoles and furniture.
Activities
Whitehill is a working-class estate with tough challenges such as high unemployment, poverty, anti-social behaviour, mental health issues and physical health issues. We are the only Community Association in the area and through our programmes, we give residents the chance to make friends, improve their health and well-being and access the support they need to live better lives.
We have continued to open the Community House 3 mornings a week to provide a warm setting for residents to connect over a coffee. We use this time to sensitively gauge their often-hidden needs, and signpost them to the relevant voluntary and statutory agencies for support. We have also continued to raise and address issues that are important to residents at meetings such as the Housing Executive’s Housing Community Network, inter-agencies, and estate inspections. Issues can range from anti-social behaviour, housing, inadequate play park, community safety and littering, and with the additional challenges that the pandemic and cost of living crisis has brought, we see this role as being priority over the next year, to ensure residents still have a voice.
Whitehill has approximately 2500 residents, and within this are a significant number of young people, aged 0-17 years old. Many of them are performing below average in school but have massive potential, and we are passionate about investing in them. Our weekly Friday night club has continued to give young people a space to meet their peers and take part in fun and educational activities, increasing their own confidence and building a better sense of community. We have a steady core of young people engaged in the club again, and this year we are keen to continue to expose them to new experiences to raise their skills and aspirations, including workshops, environmental projects, social and educational trips.
Through our community festivals and events, we bring local people together to meet their neighbours across the generations, take part in fun and engaging activities and increase community spirit. We were delighted to deliver 2 fun days last year through our summer community festival and Jubilee celebration, and this year we hope to deliver more events for friendship and light relief during tough times.
We are a small group of volunteers and one of our biggest challenges is recruiting and retaining volunteers to run the vital aspects of our charity. This has been made even more difficult over the past few years due to the impact of the pandemic and cost of living crisis; meaning residents have other priorities, but also see the challenging nature of community volunteering. This year will be focused on trying to engage more residents in community volunteering to ensure the group’s sustainability, as well as supporting our current small group of volunteers to ensure self-care and development.
As always, we are thankful to all of our funders, including Lottery Awards for All, NIHE and ANDBC, as well as charitable organisations such as North Down Community Network for their continued advice and support. We are also of course very thankful to our committee and volunteers, who volunteer their time to ensure our services and support can run.